Story Behind Ultimate Warrior's Face Paint, Warrior's Wife, More

Shari Tyree, the ex-wife of the Ultimate Warrior, is shopping around the book rights to a memoir about her marriage to the former WWE champion, titled, "Behind the Paint; My Life with Wrestling's Ultimate Warrior." The book is being co-written by Steve Anderson, who worked with Bobby Heenan on his autobiographies.

The pitch for the book reads:

For the very first time, the wife of a professional wrestling star speaks out. Shari Tyree was married for ten years to Jim Hellwig, known as the Ultimate Warrior, and saw him through his meteoric rise, and bizarre fall from the pinnacle of WWE.

Warrior packed the aisles, and was a merchandising boom to pro wrestling. Fans, known as 'Little Warriors' screamed and cheered, and then were left baffled by his abrupt disappearance at the height of his success. Only Shari Tyree knows the stunning truth behind the Warrior's face paint. Hellwig was a man possessed by demons, abusing steroids to achieve his massive, muscular frame, and then pain medications and anti-anxiety drugs to quell his fears, who had led a secretive double life that filled his marriage with turmoil and doubts about his fidelity, and even his sexuality. The avowed anti-homosexual avenger and anti-drug advocate battled with his own duality, and became the engine of his own destruction.

Behind the Paint chronicles Helwig's early career as a bodybuilder, and his stunning rise in pro wrestling, the excesses of success beyond imagination, his battles with Vince McMahon and the private life no fan could have guessed at.

Hellwig continues to be a media personality, even outside the wrestling ring, making frequent personal appearances to espouse his anti-gay, anti-drug ideals.